Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual “Ask Me Anything” forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was “surprised” that taxes for the rich haven’t been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
“Those who have the most — whether it’s countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous,” he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
How about backing up that letter with some lobbyists?
Ads. We need these folks taking out issues ads, raising the profile of taxing the ultra-rich.
Hi, I’m Bill Gates, and I am spending more on this ad campaign than I paid in taxes.
Paid for by Bill Gates
deleted by creator
As long as it is only a letter other billionaires don’t care. They know it’s lip service.
You know, you can voluntarily pay more taxes. I don’t think the irs would stop you paying more if you wanted to
if you overpay the IRS they will refund you
“I’m surprised the thing me and my ilk have been actively working against hasn’t magically happened despite our massive efforts to the opposite effect.”
Bet you Bill thinks these kinds of publicity stunts will exclude him from being eaten, when we go to eat the rich.
Just curious, how has he worked against it?
Irrelevant to this tax thing but Bill Gates still helping known patent trolls obtain more patents
Bill Gates is widely known for massive hypocrisy. And funneling his “Charity” money into vaccine companies he owns himself. And buying up an insane amount of farm land during Covid.
If Bill Gates says something you can bet that he’s doing the exact opposite. There’s a reason that this “charity man” somehow keeps getting richer.
By being part of the billionaire owner class for decades and saying nothing about it until there’s very real threats of working class solidarity.
Being part of the billionaire class prevents taxes being levied against you?
Is he funding lobbyists to affect this kind of change? No.
Is he employing top tier accountants to make sure he doesn’t pay his fair share like the poors? Betcha.
Does he funnel his wealth into charitable foundations that are a tax write off leading to him getting money rather than having to pay it, while it stays in an eco system he has full control over? Betcha.
Is he buying expensive art, property, etc. to incur expenses that are tax write offs? Betcha.Since I’m not a Billionaire, I won’t be able to tell you all the ways that cunt is 100% pushing for a status quo while putting out fluff pieces like these that make him look good while doing literally nothing to affect the change he supposedly wants.
Wouldn’t even be surprised if this was something to get out ahead of some revelations about tax evasion, so if you ever search up Bill Gates taxes, all you get is this curated nonsense of what a stand up good lad he is, trying oh so hard to pay his fair share. Why won’t anyone take his money? Poor Bill. Must be hard not getting taxed and being utterly powerless to do anything about that. Shucks. Now he has to go another decade without ever coming close to paying his fair share.
Oh, also garbage takes like these, where he publicly opposed new tax plans - but it’s fine, it was all cute and the audience laughed and he payed soooo much, sooo many taxes. https://youtu.be/dXxP4S_WwS0
I’ve come to the right place if bill gates isn’t cheered on by leftwingers… Dude has such a sketchy past especially regarding intellectual property and market manipulation.
But “at least he doesn’t support trump”
He probably is through some back-ass-channel. These kinds of assholes always play all colors, all cards and have backup plans. He still wants to cling to his little riches even if the political winds change again. Gotta be able to show receipts when that happens.
I’ll never support a single Billionaire ever for any reason whatsoever. They’re leeches and parasites to society, our species and planet.
Buy a few Republicans and let’s make it happen, Billy Boy.
They’re surprisingly cheap too
I wouldn’t say “surprisingly.”
Yup, the ruble doesn’t go as far as it used to. In 1990, you could buy cheap helicopters because the russians were in dire need of cash infusion. In 2024 you can buy cheap politicians.
It should be noted that hardware from the cold war is cheap for a reason. And the helicopters aren’t very good either.
He could do that with his pocket lint, and it’s what needs to happen
I don’t believe shit they say, if they say “go ahead and tax me” it’s because they’ve got a way out so they won’t have to, somehow.
That “somehow” is called using credit to buy everything then setting your stocks as collateral, and since debt can’t be taxed well…
As it sits, yes, but ideally the wealth tax is based on asset valuation, not liquidity, which means that they would still be screwed. They are wealthy even if they carry enough debt to make it look like they are not on paper.
Dear Bill,
the german government has a banking account where you can send them money, no questions asked. Feel free to send over your fair share of taxes you are avoiding by routing the Microsoft profits from Germany via Luxembourg and other tax havens.
Says the guy that fought tooth and nail for MRNA vaccination patents to remain private. Yeah pay taxes but maybe don’t make the money to begin with.
actions > words
TL/DR; The super wealthy own the politicians so much they can tell them to do something that they will never do. Democracy is a fool’s word.
What’s the other word? There’s a lot of details that are missed where we could have a better functioning democracy, not that it’ll happen. But other words tend to be authoritarian, could be a bias. Anarchism will never count imo :)
We live in a perpetual state of anarchy. Nobody is beholden to the law or state, they’re just imaginary rules that we all adhere to like kids in a playground. Everyone does what they do based on the everyday needs of life, we put food on the table simply because we need to put food on the table, we keep the lights on because we want them on. Even within so-called “states” are a messy web of allegiances and alliances, where nobody knows what anyone’s doing and are also doing what they do based on their everyday needs. Realizing that everyone is an individual with their own needs, that cooperative projects are agreed upon works by the needs of the many, and that the “state” has nothing to do with that process, is proof that we live in a perpetual state of anarchy, society can be whatever WE want it to be, and the notion of a “state” in opposition to “anarchy” is just copium.
Anarchism is a lack of hierarchy where nobody has power over another. If you get a job, you need to tell the state. You need to pay taxes to the state. If you buy something, the seller must have a bill to register the transaction with the state. If you want to give your property (like a house) to someone, you must tell the state. Every significant transaction between two induviduals needs to go through the state, otherwise that very state will use force (police) to punish you. We don’t live in a state of anarchy as thought of by political anarchism.
Even if the “state” is a cooperative project, it still lies above you in the hierarchy and has power over you, that’s why we don’t live in a state of anarchy.
Using your example, if say a village or town wants to build a well to supply water to their inhabitants, they’ll have to jump through hoops and abide by rules of the state and pitch to them the viability and cost of building the well, permits, etc. etc. Anarchism is when the town builds the well anyway and dares the state to stop them.
Worth noting I’m a communist, not an anarchist, so I’m not the best representative of “anarchy”.
Oh, thank goodness the billionaires will save us from [checks notes] the billionaires.
Each multi billionaire espousing a higher tax on the wealthy is free to part with any portion of their riches as they desire. Haven’t seen even one actually following through. No one is hindering them. And certainly not our Government.
That’s not the point. A one-time donation is not the same thing as a tax. Governments need to plan and budget, random donations from rich people don’t work well for that. It would potentially cause programs to be started that cannot be sustained, etc.
Like many necessary changes, this needs to be a part of the system, not something these people just do out of the goodness of thier hearts. They benefit massively from capitalism, and they should be forced to share some of that with the masses that’s are currently struggling to survive.
And that would open the door to paying an additional annual tax on your house, vehicles, stocks, etc. Make no mistake, this would be designed to go after the middle class, not the wealthy.
If you overpay taxes, the government is expected to return it. They return overpaid taxes all the time to hundreds of millions of Americans. It’s really not that simple.
Additionally, someone calling for increased taxes on their class is not automatically morally expected to just contribute without the law changing. If anything, the govt being flush with cash is a great way of getting the focus off doing the right thing and actually taxing the wealthy more.
People are right to point out that he should not simply cut a check to the government, instead he should lobby for higher wealth taxes like he lobbies for patents or voucher schools. Anything less is just free PR.
And cut a check.
QED: bringing MacKenzie Scott’s total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019
I am a bag of meat and shit yet I can still recognize that is cutting a check.
I think people often lob unfair criticism at Gates, but this is more than fair.
Gates has done enough evil during his lifetime to earn all the shit talk.
K
Yeah I’m all for some much needed tax reform but on the flipside can you imagine what the current form of government would do with all the money from tax revenue? They would fuckin blow it and we’d be fucked all over again.
Our current government is all too happy to build weapons with borrowed money. What taxation does is it causes deflation, and a wealth tax has the benefit of deflating the power of the ultra-wealthy.
I was in no way disagreeing with reform. Just had one of those flashes of the current regime scrooge mcducking it in a sea of money and shuddered.
“i know you guys are upset at us fucking over all of you, but i assure you if you let us continue being petty tyrants with vast fortunes, we might give a marginally bigger sum of it back to the government, which will still spend it on whatever we tell it to anyway. win win!”
i don’t want you to be more generous, i want you to be gone. if anyone proposed a plan that would actually affect them i doubt they would still support a wealth tax.
“Generous” is the noteworthy takeaway. Either ‘currency’ belongs to society and some people hoard it instead of circulating it, or ‘the world’ ‘belongs’ to a very select few people.
My nine year old: “My nails are sharp and they get stuck to my clothes”
Me: “You should cut them. Do you need any help?”
9 y.o.: “Please cut them even if I start crying”Sometimes people need their nails cut for them and you should be happy to oblige even if they start crying. Though I think Bill’s waning moment bribes are more convincing than offering to do chores.
No one is stopping you from giving money to the government.
You can make a gift to reduce public debt here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454
You can donate to the U.S. Government here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/708094624
This is the same argument the other billionaires, politicians, and the media makes when arguing against Gates, Buffet, and Soros. I’m not saying Gates is a great person, but he’s more or less right in this particular case. It’s kinda like the “so, if you want the homeless to be housed, let them stay in your apartment,” argument.
I don’t disagree with his opinion, I just think he is a tremendous hypocrite.
Are they both tax deductible?
Honestly donating to the national debt probably should be
If you’re gonna tax dodge at least do it in a way that offers even a nominal benefit to the rest of us
I don’t have any idea.
I’m sure what they’re saying is that they want to give the government money but the government won’t let them.
Quit being disingenuous.
Disingenuous? He has billions of dollars stored in a 501(c)(3).
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
He’s a fucking clown.
They’ll increase the tax and then funnel the government money into their sheets again, but now they can claim that they are being taxed as they should. All’s fair. Except the workers who get shitter pay, worse conditions.
Genuinely hard to tell if a joke sometimes
For every one of him, there are probably thousands of neuvo riche and wannabe rich who say otherwise. It’s an unfortunate truth.
Put up or shut up, Bill. And don’t get me started on all the land you own
